Some energy analysts believe prices could continue to drop through the summer months. The falling prices take away a key piece of the GOP’s platform against President Obama - however, the White House has been relatively quiet about the price drop and a recent AP-GfK poll showed the majority of Americans still disapprove of Obama's handling of gas prices.

Will the dropping gas prices help Obama’s reelection chances - and should the White House work harder to highlight the decrease? Or will voters still be wary of Obama’s economic performance?

The president deserves political credit for helping lower oil prices with his successful sanctions diplomacy with Iran which has calmed the oil price waters. Voters will give him modest credit. It helps weaken a potential Republican sword.

Normally, falling gas prices are a plus for any administration. Cheaper gas is a like a booster to one’s overall economic outlook. So you would think this is an opportunity for the Obama Team. Of course, bragging about it or even highlighting it comes with some risk. If/when prices start to creep up again, the administration does not want to be on the hook for “failure” to keep prices low.

The better political course for the president is to play the “invisible hand” - that his administration has made important policy and strategic decisions which have helped to “stabilize” (politicians love that word) an otherwise volatile petroleum market. Of course none of that is true because the White House has no energy policy - unless of course you count giving hundreds of millions of dollars to Solyndra or killing the Keystone Pipeline as a policies - nor has it made any strategic moves that would make one believe there was an energy policy behind the moves.

The price at the pump is always a national wakeup call that we are not in control of our energy sources; or even have an energy policy that leads us to energy independence and efficiency. After three decades we are still no further along in creating true energy independence through a common sense, comprehensive energy policy.

As consumer/voter confidence continues to wane and more and more Americans come to see Obama’s policies (energy or otherwise) as the problem and not the solution, the president will find no safe harbor in falling prices.

The Obama administration has opposed oil exploration in Alaska and off shore, slowed exploration on federal land, killed or delayed the Pipeline, raised taxes to subsidize make-believe energy and brags about its plans to bankrupt the coal industry and its workers.

Slow economic growth drops the cost of energy. Obama did help here...so does the expansion of fracking now taking place on private and state land that Obama has not yet figured out how to stop/tax/delay. But his EPA has announced plans to do so.

Too late to pivot...everyone knows Obama is happy with high energy prices and unhappy with coal miners, oil workers and large Catholic and Mormon families in SUVs.

Gas was around $1.80 when Obama took office, crashing from summer 2008 highs because Nancy Pelosi caved to a grassroots revolt and lifted the offshore drilling ban in October 2008.

Once Obama took office, he swiftly reimposed the drilling ban on the Outer Continental Shelf, used the BP spill as a pretext to impose an illegal moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, canceled on-shore leases, and vetoed the Keystone XL pipeline. Whether gas is at $4 or $3.50 doesn't change the big picture. America is an energy-rich nation that Obama has put on an energy-starvation diet.

If President Obama wants to focus on energy prices, my only question is: how can I help? If $3.66 a gallon marks some type of victory for the president, then his energy policy has truly failed. Americans have suffering with prices over $3 for a record 71 straight weeks with no end in sight. While the president does not have complete control over gas prices, his policies do have an impact and in all those areas he has failed.

Only three percent of federal land is used for oil development yet the president wants to constrict that further. The vast reserves our nation holds are largely untapped because of stifling regulation, lease delays and ongoing moratoriums. North Dakota is an amazing example of the job and economic growth offered by smart oil development yet the president continues to block those jobs for other states. And let's not even get started on the Keystone Pipeline, a project that is popular everywhere but the White House.

The president's answer to all of this is to force Americans to pay thousands of dollars more for new cars with new government standards and to "invest" their money in bankrupt projects like Solyndra.

On top of all of this, President Obama's new coal restrictions are causing household electricity rates to "skyrocket" as he promised they would. So yes Mr. President, let's talk about energy.

It's always good news for a sitting president when gas prices are going down, not up. But there will no doubt be further yo-yoing of gas prices between now and the election, so Obama is right in not crowing about the falling prices.

If the American people are happy with $3.66 / per gallon gas (which means it is still over $4.00 / per gallon in some states) or find 8 percent unemployment terrific news, then President Obama would be clobbering Gov. Romney in the polls right now. No matter how hard the news media tries to defend President Obama by selling these statistics as the “new normal”, the American people are simply not buying.

These are dreadful measurements for President Obama and shining indicators that the president’s policies have failed in a colossal fashion.

On gas prices specifically, The White House can’t possibly defend this puny decrease because it opens the president up to criticism that when he took office in 2009 gas was $1.78 / per gallon. Moreover, his daily pounding on the U.S. domestic oil industry and his Administration’s assault on exploring new oil reserves on federal lands has been solely about naked left-wing politics. Meanwhile, parts of the U.S. have been paying $5.00 / per gallon gas for the past several months.

Lastly, for a man as politically astute as the president, one has to wonder how he grew such a gigantic tin ear on matters involving gasoline. His low moment on this subject would have had to have been on February 23, 2012 when he told a group at the University of Miami "If we can figure out how to make energy out of [algae], we'll be doing alright.” With those 16 words, the president succeeded in rolling the eyes of every mother with a minivan, plumber with 10 clients that day, trucker hauling a load over four states, father with an hour commute to work, and student driving to school.

No matter how much the president promotes algae gas or $3.66 / per gallon gas, it is not a political winner for President Obama.

For the past eight weeks I have made the following offer to conservatives intent on blaming the president for rising gas prices: "I will look into the camera and blame him for high gas prices now if you promise to look into a camera and give him credit when they are way down in October." Needless to say no one took the bait because they know gas prices are largely out of the president's control and markets fluctuate.

Gas prices are rarely the president's fault but they are always his problem. As they continue to fall this can only be good news for POTUS especially since lower prices encourage spending in other items and that helps the overall economy.

If gas prices go down it helps Obama, if they go up Romney has more ammo for the fall. That much is certain, but the difference is how it's portrayed in the media.

This weekend millions will top off their tanks and shell out 50 to 60 bucks to do so. Where are the emotional stories about the moms who need to buy milk for the kids, but can't afford it because they've got to use the money to pay for gas to get to work? Where are the stories about the families who wanted to visit grandma & grandpa but have to stay home while oil companies enjoy record profits?

Rep. Maxine Waters is available for interviews to make the point that high prices affect women & minorities, while rich Romney types conduct business as usual, but her phone is not ringing.

Here's another reason there isn't an uproar this weekend. We've gotten used to $4.00 gasoline and we've come to expect it, but we should also expect that the media will down play the price at the pump until there is a changing of the Attendant-in-Chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Gas prices seem to have a small effect on presidential elections - not as large as broader measures such as unemployment, inflation, or consumer confidence, but not non-existent either. While few voters are likely to cite lower gas prices as a reason to vote *for* Obama, they may take away one reason to vote *against* him. So I would count this improvement as a minor plus for Obama.

Any good economic news is good for the president. The fact that gasoline is poised to hit nearly a two-year low over the Memorial Day weekend - the time when most families look ahead to the summer and consider their finances as they plan their family vacations - is especially positive.

The problem for Obama is that other economic indicators (e.g., GDP growth) have not been as strongly positive and the news from Europe, regarding Greece and their near insolvency, has the potential to upset the already weak recovery we are experiencing in the United States. If Obama isn't touting the low gas prices Americans are currently experiencing its because he knows that his energy policies, favoring alternative sources over traditional ones are not ones the voters in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania agree with.

He'd rather not raise the issue and remind voters of the other possibilities for exploiting our natural resources like coal and creating more jobs through projects like the XL Keystone pipeline.

For now, the president and his campaign have decided that when it comes to energy policy "silence is golden."

It certainly helps the president if gas prices are falling. But it will be hard for the president to try to push the issue, because at $3.66 per gallon prices remain twice what they were on inauguration day 2009.

Gov. Romney's team is very effective at counterpunching, and they will be sure to raise that unfavorable comparison if the president trumpets falling prices. Further, discussion of gas prices can also be used to draw attention to the president's decision to nix the Keystone pipeline, a popular decision among elements of his base but unpopular with the broader public.

So while falling gas prices, like all good news, benefits the president's reelection hopes, the president's ability to use the issue aggressively is limited. Gas prices are going to remain Republican turf in this campaign.

People are quick to squawk when they feel the pinch in their pocketbooks, but rarely give credit when the pain goes away - unless leaders and/or media create a pervasive narrative about it.

Perhaps the Obama administration is refraining from crowing about the price drop because they anticipate a rise in price that would cause pre-election squawks next fall. Whatever the reason, it's a mistake. They should tell a positive story and take the credit if they want falling gas prices to benefit his reelection.

Dewey ClaytonProfessor of Political Science, University of Louisville :

The whole issue of gas prices is like musical chairs. When President Bush II was in office, the Democrats complained that gas prices were high and Bush was doing little to nothing to change that. After President Obama took office and gas prices began to rise, the Republicans began to blame President Obama, making basically the same charges that the Democrats made. How humorous?

The reality (which both parties know well) is that the president has little control (in the short term) over the price of gas. However, as General Colin Powell is fond of saying, "If you break it, you own in." Therefore, if gas prices continue to go lower, that will benefit President Obama.

This is Memorial Day weekend, which is traditionally the beginning of summer. People tend to drive more in the summer and vacation and travel. The thing about gas prices is that almost all Americans fill up their gas tank once a week to get to and from work. So, gas prices are something we see and feel daily. The higher gas prices are, the more we feel the pinch and hold the president accountable. The lower gas prices go, the less likely we are going to take our anger out on the president. The fact that gas prices have fallen to a two-year low at the beginning of the summer is very fortuitous for President Obama.

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